A cron expression generator online turns the cryptic five-field cron syntax into something you can build visually - eliminating guesswork and saving you from costly scheduling mistakes.
What is a Cron Expression?
A cron expression is a string of five (or six) space-separated fields that defines when a scheduled job should run. Cron is used on Linux/Unix servers, in AWS EventBridge, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes CronJobs, Node.js schedulers (node-cron), and many other systems.
The standard five-field format is:
┌───── minute (0–59)
│ ┌───── hour (0–23)
│ │ ┌───── day of month (1–31)
│ │ │ ┌───── month (1–12 or JAN–DEC)
│ │ │ │ ┌───── day of week (0–6 or SUN–SAT)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *
How to Use the Cron Generator
- Open the Cron Generator on UtilWave.
- Adjust each of the five fields using the dropdown controls, or type directly.
- The human-readable description updates in real time (e.g., "Every day at 8:00 AM").
- Choose from common presets: every minute, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly.
- Copy the generated expression to paste into your crontab, workflow, or code.
Common Cron Expressions
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| * * * * * | Every minute |
| 0 * * * * | Every hour (on the hour) |
| 0 9 * * * | Every day at 9:00 AM |
| 0 9 * * 1 | Every Monday at 9:00 AM |
| 0 0 1 * * | First day of every month at midnight |
| 0 0 * * 0 | Every Sunday at midnight |
| */15 * * * * | Every 15 minutes |
| 0 9-17 * * 1-5 | Every hour from 9 AM to 5 PM, weekdays only |
Special Cron Characters
*- any value,- list of values (1,3,5)-- range of values (1-5)/- step values (*/5means every 5 units)
Common Use Cases
Scheduled reports - Run a daily report at 7 AM before business starts.
Cache warming - Warm up application caches every 15 minutes.
Database backups - Take a full backup every night at 2 AM when traffic is low.
Email digests - Send a weekly summary every Monday morning.
API data sync - Fetch data from an external service every hour.
FAQ
What is the difference between 5-field and 6-field cron? Standard Unix cron uses 5 fields. Some platforms (AWS EventBridge, Quartz) add a sixth field for seconds or year.
Can I run a job every 30 seconds? Standard cron has a minimum granularity of 1 minute. For sub-minute scheduling, use application-level timers or a platform that supports the seconds field.
Does 0 9 * * 1-5 run on public holidays?
No - cron has no concept of holidays. It runs on every weekday regardless of calendar.
How do I run a job at midnight on the last day of the month? There is no direct "last day" syntax in standard cron. A common workaround is to run the job at midnight on the 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st and check inside the script whether tomorrow is the first of the month.
Build any schedule in seconds with the free Cron Generator.